THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 541 



nervously clung to its own prima facie interest ; and yet 

 Government could scarcely hear any but parties concerned, 

 as no one else was supposed to be a judge of a matter so 

 dependent on personal experience. Cure-herring fishers, 

 for instance, insisted on their monopoly, which smoke- 

 herring fishers wanted to be overthrown ; the case was 

 exactly the reverse as regarded the smoke-herring or 

 " steurharing " monopoly ; and whom could the Minister 

 consult, unless either cure or smoke-herring shipowners? 

 Three Fishery Boards were then in existence : one for 

 the Grand Fishery, one for the fresh-herring and coast 

 fisheries, and one for the Iceland cod-fishery ; and on the 

 several monopolies, the cod-fishers' permission to cure, and 

 the distribution or abolition of premiums, no two of these, 

 when consulted by the Home Department, were of one 

 mind. The whole of the questions involved in the fishery 

 laws were therefore peculiarly hard to elucidate ; and the 

 inquiry preparatory to further measures took some years 

 to lead to a result. And yet Government was at first 

 resolved to rely solely on such information as could be 

 collected by the customary canals of office. Mr. Wintgens, 

 the member of Parliament quoted above, in October 1852 

 proposed an Inquiry into the whole of the subject by 

 parliamentary committee, an institution then just introduced 

 into Dutch constitutional law. There was much opposition 

 to the plan ; the more so, as a suspicion prevailed that its 

 mover's intention was to have bounties re-established, or at 

 least to counteract their gradual suppression. . Mr. Wint- 

 gens strongly denied the charge ; but he nevertheless 

 withdrew his proposition at the Minister's request, who 

 declared that a Government inquiry was then proceeding 

 and about to be terminated. 



Political events entirely alien to the fishery questions 



